Ocean City Student Academic Offenses Lawyer
Academic offenses typically have to do with a student behavior; specifically with their credibility or their honesty. Academic offenses include plagiarizing someone else’s work, having someone else take a test on another student’s behalf, cheating, and lying. If, after it is brought to the attention of the authorities, they then also lie or are deceitful about what occurred, that could be a separate offense. For example, using another student’s work is an academic offense. Colleges are very serious about these offenses because they are hoping that they are teaching students the importance of being honest and truthful. Integrity and reputation is the most important thing that a student has. That is one of the reasons why universities have honor codes in effect, and why they stress what sort of behavior is expected of a student. Students facing academic charges may wish to consult with an Ocean City student academic offenses lawyer.
How Universities View Academic Offenses
There have been stories in the media and recent history about universities inflating student’s grades or allowing for a certain amount of lack of integrity in order for students to appear to be successful. A university that has been labeled that way is not going to be successful at all. this label will affect their enrollment rates, which affects tuition. There is certainly a monetary reason why a university would want to be known as a place of integrity and honor. Universities want it to be clear that whatever grades were handed out were grades that students earned and not grades that had been manipulated in order to make the student or the university appear better.
Another reason that universities are very serious about academic offenses is that it’s not unusual for students to be attending on scholarships, especially at bigger and higher level universities. Regardless of whether it’s a sports scholarship or an academic scholarship, it is important for the university to know that students are maintaining a GPA that is actually theirs, and is not inflated or deceitful, because it is tied to a scholarship. Sometimes for sports eligibility, the student needs to maintain a certain GPA in order to be able to participate, so truth and integrity about grades is very important to that. Because colleges and universities take these offenses and their reputation so seriously, any student being charged with an academic offense should consider consulting with an Ocean City student academic offenses lawyer.
Who is Involved in Academic Offense Proceedings
If it is an academic offense, like cheating or plagiarism, the first person that realizes what is going on will be a professor or perhaps another student that is working hand-in-hand with the student that is cheating or committing plagiarism.
Most universities have a set policy as to what will happen if such an offense is discovered. It may be that there is a formal grievance or a written form that will have to be completed by the professor or the other student. Whatever is written will have to be detailed and give a great deal of information about what is alleged, including what date it took place and what exactly occurred. Once something has been put in writing, it would go from there.
Some universities have a committee that would review that grievance form, and would consider if the grievance has any merit. At other universities, it may go directly to the Office of Academic Affairs to decide what should be done. Oftentimes after there is a grievance, there will have to be a decision made as to whether or not it needs to be investigated further. Most universities also have a hearing process for students so that the student has an opportunity to respond and perhaps present evidence that is in their defense to show that they did not cheat or commit plagiarism. An Ocean City student academic offenses lawyer can provide aid through this process.
Common Academic Offenses
One of the most common academic charges is cheating. Essentially that means that a student is using or trying to use information, study guides, or materials of another student in order to gain some sort of advantage. One example would be having another student write a paper on behalf of that student, who then turns it in as if it is their own work. Another example could be working on a project or a test outside of the time frames that were given. It also could mean a student falsifying any work that perhaps they did within a laboratory or on a computer using software; manipulating that data would be cheating.
Another one is plagiarism. Students citing somebody else’s work need to clarify that this is not their writing. They have to cite the source and make sure that they use quotations marks if they are citing somebody else’s work or what somebody else has written. Failure to do that would be considered plagiarism. Salisbury University, for example, also has a very specific academic misconduct charge called misappropriation of course based intellectual property. According to their code of student conduct, it’s the act of intentionally taking the intellectual property of faculty or others without the expressed consent or permission of that faculty member or other person.
How an Ocean City Student Defense Lawyer Can Help
Assuming that a grievance has been filed against a student because it’s alleged that they cheated, committed plagiarism or whatever the case may be, the student defense attorney can explain to the student what the procedures are and help the student be prepared for it. For example, if there’s going to be a hearing, they know what sort of information the student can provide and whether the student can call witnesses on his own behalf to defend against this charge. Additionally, they know what sort of physical evidence a student can bring in to assist. Since a student academic offenses attorney in Ocean City understands the whole policy and understands what all of the steps are, they can help a student understand what to expect.